A Brilliant Madness
by SithelfJen
Summary: Who is to say what is real and what isn't real? ERRG


A Brilliant Madness  
By: SithelfJen  
Fandom: BTVS  
Pairing RG/ER  
Disclaimer: I rolled up the rim but sadly I didn't win.  
Warnings: mild slash, drug use.  
This story is based on Live Journal user WickedFox wonderful photo of Ethan in straight jacket. and Buffy season six episode Normal Again. The plot bunny leaped out the screen and attacked me.  
The Latin is from The Lives of Twelve Caesars by Suetonius.  
If anyone call tell what famous series Gwyneth Lloyd is from I'll dictated my next fic to you, and No cheating!  
Feel free to archive but tell me where so I can visit.

A Brilliant Madness

Rupert Giles sighed as he parked his car and walked up the drive to Oakridge Sanatarium. The Sanatarium was an exclusive hospital for people who where suffering from mental disorders. He ignored the startled looks that some of the new staff and visitors gave him. After all, who would have thought a punk icon like himself would visit to place like this?

"Hello Mr. Giles. I'll call Doctor Gordon," said the Head Nurse Carola Johnson. She had first started has a probationer at Oakridge over twenty five years ago when Rupert Giles had started to visit. She had to admire a man who visited almost every single weekend for almost twenty five years. A man who dictated every album to his lover and refused to tour on weekends so he could be with him.

"What happened?" Rupert asked anxiously. He had been on a rare promotional tour in the United States when he received a phone call that had him back on the first plane to England. The details had been rather sketchy side. Thank God the Concorde had resumed flying between New York City and London.

"He got a hold of knife and cut up his hands very badly," Carola replied in a quiet voice. She braced herself for the explosion.

"How the hell did that happen?" Rupert demanded sharply. "He's not suppose to have access to knives or sharp objects. Who the bloody hell gave him one?" The last sentence was shouted.

"One of the new food service people gave a knife by mistake. The girl claimed she didn't see the sign on the door. I knew it was a mistake to out source the food services," Carola replied in a disgusted voice. The girl had been more upset that she had lost her job than the fact she had almost killed someone due to her own negligence.

"Christ All Mighty," Rupert muttered, shaking his head. "Who found him?"

"Hello Mr. Giles," Doctor Katherine Gordon greeted, before Carola could reply. Like Carola, Katherine Gordon had been working at Oakridge for over twenty five years. She had been a brilliant tennis player, winning two Grand Slam titles before a knee injury had forced her to retire in her mid twenties. She had transferred her passion for tennis into medicine. She was considered a world wide leader in schizophrenia. "Please come to my office."

"He cut his hands," Rupert said bluntly sitting down in a plush chair in Doctor Gordon's office. He accepted her offer of tea. There were numerous pictures of her accepting various tennis trophies, her medical degrees and awards pinned on the walls and on her desk. "How bad?"

"He needed fifteen stitches on each hand," she said in a weary sigh. "Matey found him before he could do any more damage."I know you're going to be unhappy but we had to put him in a jacket until his hands heal otherwise he try to gnaw his stitches out," Doctor Gordon said leaning back in her chair. She knew how much Rupert hated the jacket.

Rupert nodded unhappily but saw the logic in that statement. "Where is he?"

"In the orchard with Matey,"she replied with a faint smile. "She turning the pages for him so he can read. Incidently, the catering company want to settle with you out of court."

Rupert got up, his tea untouched, and gave her a sneer that had defined one generation and inspired another. "You can tell them to shove it were the sun doesn't shine."

Five minutes later, after signing several autographs, Rupert slipped into the orchard, kicking the occasional apple or pear out of his way. He finally spotted a familiar figure sitting under a chestnut tree. He silently walked over and placed his finger against his lips in the universal sign of silence when the woman glanced up at him. It never ceased to amaze Rupert that his boyfriend could read and speak over a dozen languages despite the fact he had never heard or studied any of them before coming here. No doctor had been ever able to explain that particular phenomenon.

"Nam si violandum est ius, regnandi gratia violandum est-." Ethan Rayne suddenly stopped and looked up with a smile.

"Ripper."

"Hallo Ethan," Rupert said bending down and giving Ethan a kiss on the forehead. He had never understood why Ethan always called him Ripper instead of Rupert. "Hello Matey. How are you?"

Gwyneth 'Matey' Lloyd had been a matron at a Swiss boarding school until she had been forced to retire almost ten years ago. Unable to accept her retirement from the working world, she had retreated into the past and treated all the patients like naughty school children.

"Excellent," she said in a brisk voice. She got up and handed Rupert the book she had been holding for Ethan She rubbed her hands together. "I must get going. I'm off to conduct a locker inspection. You know how those middles are; lazy, untidy girls."

Rupert sat down behind Ethan and wrapped his arms around his waist and rested his head on Ethan's shoulder. "Do you want to talk about it?" Rupert asked gently after a few minutes of silence. He had learned long ago that screaming at Ethan was useless. The last time he had done that, Ethan had spiralled into a deep depression that had lasted over nine months.

"I haven't done the New Year ritual in two years Ripper. Two whole years," Ethan said sharply, shifting restlessly in Rupert's arms, "but Janus understood. He was very happy with my sacrifice."

Rupert nodded sadly. Ethan's hands and arms were covered with similar sacrificial marks. He had once asked why he had to use blood. 'Blood," Ethan said in a distance voice," is what makes us live. Without blood, we are nothing."

"Do you know what your Slayer is doing?" Ethan demanded indignantly, twisting out of Rupert's arms until he was facing him. "She's sleeping with Spike. What is with that girl? First she sleeps with Spike's sire Angel, and now she's sleeping with his childe. Mark my words, nothing good will come of it."

Six years ago, Ethan's schizophrenia world had taken a bizarre turn. He was convinced that Rupert was a 'Watcher' to a 'Vampire Slayer' named Buffy Summers. Buffy Summers lived in a town called Sunnydale, located in California. Buffy was some sort of superhero with several friends who also had supernatural powers. Willow, a witch, Angel, a vampire with a soul, Cordelia, a seer, Faith, another Slayer, Dawn, the Key, Jenny, a techno witch and Rupert's dead girlfriend of all things! Xander, just a regular guy, Anya, an ex-demon and Xander's girlfriend and Tara, Willow's girlfriend and another witch. They fought mythical monsters such as demons, gods and vampires on a day to day basis and it seemed that Rupert played a major role in their lives. Ethan's schizophrenia world was extremely complex to say the least.

"And another thing; Willow is becoming addicted to magic. She's a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off and god help all of us when that happens, " Ethan said seriously shaking his head. "I always knew it was mistake to let her learn magic.

Rupert sighed as he listened to Ethan ramble on about his supposed life in Sunnydale. Not for the first time in his life, he cursed himself for giving Ethan the acid that had shattered Ethan's mind back in 1975. Biting back tears, he mourned his Ethan's life that was lost to madness.

Unnoticed to them, The First, in the shape of Gwyneth Lloyd, watched them from the edge of the orchard. There was a cold smile on her face. As long as they believed that they were in this reality, their bodies and minds would waste away in their reality and there was nothing the Slayer or her friends could do to save them.

End


End file.
